Coonrod takes the stand, saying, 'Thomas and Stephen was all I had' WATCH THE VIDEO
Lead Summary
By
Brandy Chandler-brandychandler@gmail.com
He said that his children were his life. Wednesday afternoon, Wesley Coonrod took the stand to defend his life, openly crying as he told a jury of his peers that he did not murder his two little boys.
The defense and the state have now completed the presentation of their case in the capital murder trial against Coonrod. On Thursday, the jury will begin deliberating if Coonrod is guilty and potentially deciding if he should be put to death for setting the fire that killed 4-year-old Thomas and 3-year-old Stephen Coonrod.
The day the boys died was Thomas's fourth birthday.
Coonrod was indicted in April on two charges of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications; arson, a felony of the second degree; two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; and two counts of child endangering, felonies of the third degree, stemming from a March 7 fire at 150 Lafayette St. in Greenfield.
The state alleges that Coonrod deliberately set the fire, with the use of an accelerant, and an igniter such as a cigarette lighter. Separate investigators have determined the cause of the fire was an intentional human act with the use of an accelerant.
Lab tests did not confirm the presence of accelerant in the fire.
The defense has alleged that one of the children may have set the fire. An expert witness called by the defense testified that he found the cause of the fire to be "undetermined" and that he could not rule out an intentional human act or a juvenile fire-setter.
Members of Coonrod's family testified that they had seen Thomas playing with cigarette lighters, playing in fires the family set to burn trash, and throwing paper and toys into a gas heating unit. It was also alleged that the children may have set other fires in the months prior to the fire that took their lives.
A Feb. 2 fire at the family's Milburn Street home was determined to have originated in a toy box. However, Chris Oiler, an investigator for the property owner's insurance company, testified that it could have been caused by discarded smoking materials.
Through the trial, the defense alleged that one of the children may have started the fire on Lafayette Street by lighting a plastic toy army man on fire and leaving it on the carpet, with the toy acting as an accelerant. Toy soldiers were found in the closet where the children's bodies were discovered.
On cross-examination Wednesday, Coonrod testified that his cigarette lighters were childproof.
Attorneys William Mooney and Jerry McHenry called Coonrod to the stand to testify in his own defense.
"On March 7 of this year, you had a pretty significant event in your life, didn't you?" McHenry said to Coonrod.
The defendant took a moment to respond, fighting tears. His voice broke as he responded, "I lost my sons ... due to a fire."
A juror passed Coonrod a box of tissues.
"You're showing some emotion, and that's all right," McHenry said. "But we need to talk about this."
McHenry asked Coonrod to describe the events that happened late March 6 into the early hours of March 7.
Coonrod testified that he woke up to the smell of smoke and heard a crackling noise. He opened the door of his bedroom, he said, burning his hand, and all he could see was black smoke and flames. He said he then exited the house through the rear window of the bedroom.
Prior to Coonrod taking the stand, Dr. Abbott Spaulding testified that Coonrod had been treated for a degenerative eye disorder since the 1980s and had surgery for cataracts. That severely limits his vision, he testified, and that he is night blind.
Coonrod said he went to the front of the home to access the boys' bedroom window, unsuccessfully trying to break it out with a rock. With the help of neighbors, he said, the window was broken out, but he could not make entry due to smoke.
The family had only lived in the home a few days, but Coonrod said that he had purchased a fire extinguisher, and he tried to make entry through the back door so he could put out the fire.
Clad only in his boxer shorts, since he had been in bed, and with no shoes, Coonrod said that he could not kick down the back door.
Throughout the trial, witnesses said they could "hear the babies screaming." Coonrod said he never heard the boys make any noise.
Testimony had been given by fire investigators that alleged Coonrod's back bedroom window, where he said he exited, was down at time of the fire. McHenry asked if he had an explanation for that. Coonrod said he couldn't explain why it was down, but that he did not close it, and that is how he got out of the apartment.
Coonrod also denied allegations that he was drunk at the time of the fire. He said he had four to six beers earlier in the day.
"Did you squirt charcoal lighter fluid in the hallway?" McHenry said. Coonrod said that he had not.
"Your children are dead," McHenry said, and Coonrod nodded his head yes.
"Thomas and Stephen was all I had," Coonrod said, becoming emotional again. "I mean, I'm all them boys had. Them was my babies, man. I done everything I could to get into the house to my children ... I did not do nothing to hurt my kids. Anybody who knows me knows I love my babies. I ain't got nothing else. My life's gone."
As tears rolled down his face, Coonrod indicated that he wished he had not gotten out of the fire himself.
When asked to explain his aggressive actions toward hospital staff when his children were declared dead, Coonrod paused, finally saying, "How would you feel? If you'd lost your kids?"
"Did you set out to kill your children that night?" McHenry asked.
"No, I did not, sir," Coonrod said.
Coonrod said he tried to save his children.
On cross-examination, Coonrod said that witnesses allege he did not try to save the boys.
"Everyone that came to that house, tried to get in that house to save your boys," Grandey said. "They heard them screaming. Did you hear them screaming?"
Coonrod said he did not hear them screaming.
Grandey questioned Coonrod on his behavior at the scene of the fire and if he could explain his claim that he tried to get in the broken window. Grandey asked how he did not get hurt on the glass, when another person, Benjamin "Kelly" Stockton, needed 18 stitches for injuries he sustained on the same window. Coonrod said it was because Stockton punched through the window to break it. Coonrod said that testimony that he did not have soot on him was untrue, and that he had soot on his face and hands.
The state presented several witnesses who testified Coonrod was despondent at the scene, and would not answer them when he was asked where his children were. Some witnesses testified that he stood on the sidewalk asking for cigarettes while his neighbors attempted to break into the house.
Regarding testimony that alleged Coonrod was yelling and swearing while at the hospital, and accusing nurses and doctors of not doing enough to save his children, Grandey said, "Mr. Coonrod, I submit to you that the only person that didn't do anything to save your children is you."
The defense objected, and Coss sustained, saying to Grandey, "That's not a question. You're not testifying. You can ask a question."
Grandey showed Coonrod a charcoal lighter can that had been taken into evidence, and Coonrod said that he had never seen it. Holding up a plastic bag with a blue Bic lighter inside, Grandey asked, "Did you ever see state's exhibit number five?"
"It looks like a burnt lighter," Coonrod said.
Grandey asked if Coonrod heard fire investigator Trace Lawless testify he found that lighter inside Coonrod's front door, and Coonrod said that he had.
"Whose lighter is this, Mr. Coonrod?" Grandey asked, and Coonrod said that he didn't know.
"It's yours, isn't it?"
"How many people was going in and out trying to save my kids?" Coonrod said.
Grandey questioned Coonrod regarding the locking mechanism on the front door, the position of the smoke detectors in the apartment, and then he returned to questions about the blue cigarette lighter. Coonrod told Grandey that one blue cigarette lighter was in his bedroom with his tobacco, and one red lighter was in the kitchen.
"How do you explain how the blue lighter got from your bedroom to the front door (where Lawless found it)?" Grandey asked.
Coonrod said that he did not know. He then asked Grandey, "Is it childproof? The lighters I had was childproof."
"Childproof?" Grandey asked. "So your children couldn't use them? ... They would not be able to use them if they got ahold of them?"
"Yes, sir," Coonrod said.
"So they couldn't have set an army man on fire, could they?" Grandey asked.
"I have no clue," Coonrod said.
Coonrod said that he wanted to ask Grandey a question, saying, "Is it again the law ..." However, Coss interrupted Coonrod, saying that he was not permitted to ask questions.
Grandey concluded the cross-examination by asking Coonrod if he set the fire that killed his children.
"Mr. Coonrod, did you pour an accelerant in the hallway of your home, and lit it and went out the front door, close(d) the door and left your two children to die in the closet?"
"No, I did not," Coonrod said.
On re-direct examination, McHenry asked Coonrod about Grandey, saying, "He's a big man ... Bigger than you are ... and he's a loud talker."
"As a matter of fact, he's annoying," Coonrod said. "He gets on my nerves.
The court asked Coonrod to speak up, and he repeated himself. Grandey then addressed Coss, saying, "I can't understand him."
"He said you get on his nerves," Coss said.
McHenry asked Coonrod about the intimidating courtroom setting, saying, "You're the man in the hot seat. And you know that that man (Grandey) wants to send you off to death row," McHenry said. "Pretty intimidating."
Grandey objected, and Coss sustained the motion.
"The final question Mr. Grandey asked you ... was, did you pour accelerant in your house, set it on fire and run out the front door leaving your children to die ... Did you do that?"
"No, sir," Coonrod said. "I would never do nothing to hurt my kids. My kids are my life. They will always be my life. I took my babies from a bad environment and I provided for them, the best that I could do."
Coonrod held up his hands, palms up, struggling through tears to get out the words as he continued with his response.
"I am a single parent. I am one person, trying to raise and 3- and a 4-year-old by myself," he said. "I was not only their father. I was their mother. I was the person who cleaned that house and cooked for them. Made sure they had a roof over their heads. I loved them boys. I'd never do nothing to hurt my kids. I hate people ... saying I would ever attempt to do something to hurt my kids. What kind of sick people are they?"
When Coonrod's testimony concluded, the defense said that it rests. Through the remainder of the afternoon, the court read 44 pages of substantive instructions to the jury regarding matters of law regarding the charges. On Thursday morning, the jury will hear additional, closing arguments from the state and defense. It is anticipated they will begin deliberations around the noon hour, and will be sequestered until they return a verdict.
As part of the jury instructions, at the request of the defense, the jury may consider "lesser charges" of negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter if they find Coonrod not guilty of, or they are unable to read a decision, regarding the two charges of murder.
He said that his children were his life. Wednesday afternoon, Wesley Coonrod took the stand to defend his own life, openly crying as he told a jury of his peers that he did not murder his two little boys.
The defense and the state have now completed the presentation of evidence in the capital murder trial against Coonrod. On Thursday, the jury will begin deliberating if Coonrod is guilty, and potentially could decide if he should be put to death for allegedly setting the fire that killed 4-year-old Thomas and 3-year-old Stephen Coonrod.
The day the boys died was Thomas's fourth birthday.
Coonrod was indicted in April on two counts of aggravated murder with death penalty specifications; arson, a felony of the second degree; two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; and two counts of child endangering, felonies of the third degree, stemming from a March 7 fire at 150 Lafayette St. in Greenfield.
The state alleges that Coonrod deliberately set the fire, with the use of an accelerant, and an igniter such as a cigarette lighter. Separate investigators presented by the state have determined the cause of the fire was an intentional human act with the use of an accelerant.
Lab tests did not confirm the presence of accelerant in the fire.
The defense has alleged that one of the children may have set the fire. An expert witness called by the defense on Monday testified that he found the cause of the fire to be "undetermined" and that he could not rule out an intentional human act or a juvenile fire-setter.
Members of Coonrod's family testified that they had seen Thomas playing with cigarette lighters, playing in fires the family set to burn trash, and throwing paper and toys into a gas heating unit. It was also alleged that the children may have set other fires in the months prior to the fire that took their lives.
A Feb. 2 fire at the family's Milburn Street home in Greenfield was determined to have originated in a toy box. However, Chris Oiler, an investigator for the property owner's insurance company, testified that it could have been caused by discarded smoking materials.
Through the trial, the defense alleged that one of the children may have started the fire on Lafayette Street by lighting a plastic toy army man on fire and leaving it on the carpet, with the toy acting as an accelerant. Toy soldiers were found in the closet where the children's bodies were discovered.
On cross-examination Wednesday, Coonrod testified that his cigarette lighters were childproof.
Attorneys William Mooney and Jerry McHenry called Coonrod to the stand to testify in his own defense.
"On March 7 of this year, you had a pretty significant event in your life, didn't you?" McHenry said to Coonrod.
The defendant took a moment to respond, fighting tears. His voice broke as he responded, "I lost my sons ... due to a fire."
A juror passed Coonrod a box of tissues.
"You're showing some emotion, and that's all right," McHenry said. "But we need to talk about this."
McHenry asked Coonrod to describe the events that happened late March 6 into the early hours of March 7.
Coonrod testified that he woke up to the smell of smoke and heard a crackling noise. He opened the door of his bedroom, he said, burning his hand, and all he could see was black smoke and flames. He said he then exited the house through the rear window of the bedroom.
Prior to Coonrod taking the stand, Dr. Abbott Spaulding testified that Coonrod had been treated for a degenerative eye disorder since the 1980s and had surgery for cataracts. That severely limits his vision, he testified, and that he is night blind.
Coonrod said he went to the front of the home to access the boys' bedroom window, unsuccessfully trying to break it out with a rock. With the help of neighbors, he said, the window was broken out, but he could not make entry due to smoke.
The family had only lived in the home a few days, but Coonrod said that he had purchased a fire extinguisher, and he tried to make entry through the back door so he could put out the fire.
Clad only in his boxer shorts, since he had been in bed, and with no shoes, Coonrod said that he could not kick down the back door.
Throughout the trial, witnesses said they could "hear the babies screaming." Coonrod said he never heard the boys make any noise.
Testimony had been given by fire investigators that alleged Coonrod's back bedroom window, where he said he exited, was down at time of the fire. McHenry asked if he had an explanation for that. Coonrod said he couldn't explain why it was down, but that he did not close it, and that is how he got out of the apartment.
Coonrod also denied allegations that he was drunk at the time of the fire. He said he had four to six beers earlier in the day.
"Did you squirt charcoal lighter fluid in the hallway?" McHenry said. Coonrod said that he had not.
"Your children are dead," McHenry said, and Coonrod nodded his head yes.
"Thomas and Stephen was all I had," Coonrod said, becoming emotional again. "I mean, I'm all them boys had. Them was my babies, man. I done everything I could to get into the house to my children ... I did not do nothing to hurt my kids. Anybody who knows me knows I love my babies. I ain't got nothing else. My life's gone."
As tears rolled down his face, Coonrod indicated that he wished he had not gotten out of the fire himself.
When asked to explain his aggressive actions toward hospital staff when his children were declared dead, Coonrod paused, finally saying, "How would you feel? If you'd lost your kids?"
"Did you set out to kill your children that night?" McHenry asked.
"No, I did not, sir," Coonrod said.
Coonrod said he tried to save his children.
On cross-examination, Coonrod said that witnesses allege he did not try to save the boys.
"Everyone that came to that house, tried to get in that house to save your boys," said Highland County Prosecutor Jim Grandey. "They heard them screaming. Did you hear them screaming?"
Coonrod said he did not hear them screaming.
Grandey questioned Coonrod on his behavior at the scene of the fire and if he could explain his claim that he tried to get in the broken window. Grandey asked how he did not get hurt on the glass, when another person, Benjamin "Kelly" Stockton, needed 18 stitches for injuries he sustained on the same window. Coonrod said it was because Stockton punched through the window to break it. Coonrod said that testimony that he did not have soot on him was untrue, and that he had soot on his face and hands.
The state presented several witnesses who testified Coonrod was despondent at the scene, and would not answer them when he was asked where his children were. Some witnesses testified that he stood on the sidewalk asking for cigarettes while his neighbors attempted to break into the house.
Regarding testimony that alleged Coonrod was yelling and swearing while at the hospital, and accusing nurses and doctors of not doing enough to save his children, Grandey said, "Mr. Coonrod, I submit to you that the only person that didn't do anything to save your children is you."
The defense objected, and Judge Rocky Coss sustained, saying to Grandey, "That's not a question. You're not testifying. You can ask a question."
Grandey showed Coonrod a charcoal lighter can that had been taken into evidence, and Coonrod said that he had never seen it. Holding up a plastic bag with a blue Bic lighter inside, Grandey asked, "Did you ever see state's exhibit number five?"
"It looks like a burnt lighter," Coonrod said.
Grandey asked if Coonrod heard fire investigator Trace Lawless testify he found that lighter inside Coonrod's front door, and Coonrod said that he had.
"Whose lighter is this, Mr. Coonrod?" Grandey asked, and Coonrod said that he didn't know.
"It's yours, isn't it?"
"How many people was going in and out trying to save my kids?" Coonrod said.
Grandey questioned Coonrod regarding the locking mechanism on the front door, the position of the smoke detectors in the apartment, and then he returned to questions about the blue cigarette lighter. Coonrod told Grandey that one blue cigarette lighter was in his bedroom with his tobacco, and one red lighter was in the kitchen.
"How do you explain how the blue lighter got from your bedroom to the front door (where Lawless found it)?" Grandey asked.
Coonrod said that he did not know. He then asked Grandey, "Is it childproof? The lighters I had was childproof."
"Childproof?" Grandey asked. "So your children couldn't use them?"
"Yes, they could have," Coonrod said.
"They would not be able to use them if they got ahold of them?" Grandey asked.
"Yes, they could have," Coonrod said.
"They would not be able to use them if they got ahold of them?" Grandey asked.
"Yes, sir," Coonrod said.
"So they couldn't have set an army man on fire, could they?" Grandey asked.
"I have no clue," Coonrod said.
Coonrod said that he wanted to ask Grandey a question, saying, "Is it again the law ..." However, Coss interrupted Coonrod, saying that he was not permitted to ask questions.
Grandey concluded the cross-examination by asking Coonrod if he set the fire that killed his children.
"Mr. Coonrod, did you pour an accelerant in the hallway of your home, and lit it and went out the front door, close(d) the door and left your two children to die in the closet?"
"No, I did not," Coonrod said.
On re-direct examination, McHenry asked Coonrod about Grandey, saying, "He's a big man ... Bigger than you are ... and he's a loud talker."
"As a matter of fact, he's annoying," Coonrod said. "He gets on my nerves.
The court asked Coonrod to speak up, and he repeated himself. Grandey then addressed Coss, saying, "I can't understand him."
"He said you get on his nerves," Coss said.
McHenry asked Coonrod about the intimidating courtroom setting, saying, "You're the man in the hot seat. And you know that that man (Grandey) wants to send you off to death row," McHenry said. "Pretty intimidating."
Grandey objected, and Coss sustained the motion.
"The final question Mr. Grandey asked you ... was, did you pour accelerant in your house, set it on fire and run out the front door leaving your children to die ... Did you do that?"
"No, sir," Coonrod said. "I would never do nothing to hurt my kids. My kids are my life. They will always be my life. I took my babies from a bad environment and I provided for them, the best that I could do."
Coonrod held up his hands, palms up, struggling through tears to get out the words as he continued with his response.
"I am a single parent. I am one person, trying to raise a 3- and a 4-year-old by myself," he said. "I was not only their father. I was their mother. I was the person who cleaned that house and cooked for them. Made sure they had a roof over their heads. I loved them boys. I'd never do nothing to hurt my kids. I hate people ... saying I would ever attempt to do something to hurt my kids. What kind of sick people are they?"
When Coonrod's testimony concluded, the defense said that it rests. Through the remainder of the afternoon, the court read 44 pages of substantive instructions to the jury regarding matters of law regarding the charges on which they must deliberate. On Thursday morning, the jury will hear additional instructions, and closing arguments from the state and defense. It is anticipated they will begin deliberations around the noon hour, and will be sequestered until they return a verdict.
As part of the jury instructions, at the request of the defense, the jury may consider "lesser charges" of negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter if they find Coonrod not guilty of, or they are unable to read a decision, regarding the two charges of murder.
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